Spinout News

UCLB spinout GSL to help researchers detect diseases earlier

14 October 2024

Guilford Street Laboratories (GSL), a new UCLB spinout, is using machine learning-driven omic technology to deliver new innovative assays with higher precision. GSL aims to revolutionise diagnosis and monitoring of treatment for clinical trials and equip clients with crucial data that is more accurate, sensitive and specific than currently available. This includes diagnoses for rare paediatric conditions as well as adult diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  

Biomarker assays are crucial to assess disease susceptibility and severity, predict outcomes, determine interventions, and evaluate therapeutic responses. They support selection of a lead drug candidates and understand their mechanism of action. The addition of machine-learning allows for panels of multiple biomarkers to be brought together to diagnose and stratify diseases better than ever before and bring in a new era of diagnostic capability in precision medicine. 

GSL was founded by Professor Kevin Mills, Dr Tomas Baldwin, and Dr Wendy Heywood from the Biological Mass Spectrometry Research Centre at the GOS Institute of Child Health. They have extensive experience and specialise in the analysis of protein, lipid, and metabolite biomarkers. GSL is now actively translating their novel and innovative assays to clinical use and targeting industry collaboration to bring their pipeline of diagnostic tests to point of care, as well as supporting clinical trials and for personalised medicine. 

GSL’s team are collaborating with their academic partners to translate biomarkers into clinical contexts that can “revolutionise healthcare,” according to CEO Tomas Baldwin. 

He said: “Whilst GSL is a new company, the team have been at the forefront of this kind of innovation for over 30 years. It is really exciting to be able to push forward with some of our latest developments that we feel will revolutionise the standard of diagnostics for a range of rare, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases.” 

The company brings together the experience of pan-UCL omic, bioinformatic and clinical experts to create portfolios of tests that include key panels of biomarkers that are specific for a disease or organ systems.  These assays have been made into a service that can be offered to both industry clients or the NHS and can include proteins, metabolite or lipid biomarkers. 

The partnering of the company to deliver these services with an active R&D research department at University College London has created a powerhouse of bioinformatic, method development and clinical expertise to offer a world class service to both the NHS and industry. Using this research pipeline and experience to bring tests to market, GSL will also offer a fully customisable biomarker analysis service, tailored for diverse needs, based on individual requirements.  

Caitriona O’Rourke, Senior Business Manager, UCLB, said: “We’re delighted to see GSL spinout successfully. The excellence of the team should help the spinout succeed and UCLB will continue to work closely.”